An inspired gathering of religious writings that reveals the "divine reality" common to all faiths, collected by Aldous Huxley "The Perennial Philosophy," Aldous Huxley writes, "may be found among the traditional lore of peoples in every region of the world, and in its fully developed forms it has a place in every one of the higher religions." With great wit and stunning intellect—drawing on a diverse array of faiths, including Zen Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Christian mysticism, and Islam—Huxley examines the spiritual beliefs of various religious traditions and explains how they are united by a common human yearning to experience the divine. The Perennial Philosophy includes selections from Meister Eckhart, Rumi, and Lao Tzu, as well as the Bhagavad Gita, Tibetan Book of the Dead, Diamond Sutra, and Upanishads, among many others.
Gurdjieff has used more than one system of human typology and in this book we will try to study the main ones in order to better understand ourselves and the world in which we live in. This book explains, for the first time ever, the 28 human types mentioned by Gurdjieff in his books, The Herald of Coming Good and Beelzebub's Tales.After more twenty years of searching through different ways and types of exercises and more than ten years in one of the groups from the Gurdjieff Institute, I am now feeling the need to offer back to the world a little part of the knowledge that helped me to be a better human being today. While this book does not contain all the information that Gurdjieff brought, it gives a fair point of departure in an adventure that will bring more being in your life. The reader should have a basic knowledge of Gurdjieffian psychological and cosmological aspects, as the information presented here is pour les connoisseurs. Table of contents: Preface The 7 types States of consciousness The centers The first triad Man no. 1 Man no. 2 Man no. 3 Man no. 4 ConclusionThe 28 Types A lifetime quest The centers revisited The physical center and its parts The emotional center and its parts The first nine types The second nine types The third nine types The twenty-seven types The twenty-eight type Relationships inside the enneagram Conclusion The 6 Types A Gurdjieffian legacy Planetary influences Enneagram revisited Pure types General behavior The Lunar The Venusian The Mercurial The Saturnine The Martial The Jovial The Solar extension pack Relationships between pure types The combined types The Lunar - Venusian The Venusian - Mercury The Mercury - Saturnine The Saturnine - Martial The Martial - Jovial The Jovial - Lunar Relationships between combined types Evolution of types Conclusion The 4 Types Gurdjieff 's Work The Householder The Tramp The Lunatic The Vacuums Conclusion The 21 Types The Science of Idiots Basic information Traits of the idiots Conclusion The Zodiac The twelve months The twelve signs Conclusion This is not the end
The Socratic injunction, "Know Thyself," is the foundation for all work on selfdevelopment. Susan Zannos opens an illumination window on human behavior and temperament in her study of the basic human essence types. These types differ so much from each other, and are so greatly modified by the dominant type of intelligence operating in a particular person, that persistent and prolonged selfobservation is required to verify one's own type, or to recognize others. Recognition of these types and the division between essence and personality is the foundation upon which practical work on oneself begins. Zannos Describes the basic human essence types with the hope of helping those who want to understand what is most genuine in themselves and the people with whom they live. Zannos approaches human typology from a variety of perspectives, and ties the Gurdjieff Ouspensky Fourth Way system to a wide range of cultural, religious, and scientific traditions. She traces roots in Homeric legend and the Olympian pantheon through medieval astrology and the Qabalah, as well as discussing endocrinology and psychology. She points out resonances to C.G. Jung's psychology, the work of Piaget, and to Native American iconography. After exploring the four types of intellectual function, she launches an extensive discussion of the classic types of the Enneagram, leavened by personal anecdote and lively description. While this book will be of special interest to Fourth Way students, the information can help people from all walks of life who want to learn about themselves and the people they care for.
Beyond Meetings with Remarkable Men into the truth behind the self-crafted mythology of Gurdjieff’s life • Reveals evidence that Gurdjieff was a secret Freemason, relying on hypnotism, psychic research and spiritualism • Explores the profound influence of the Yezidis, esoteric Christianity, and the “gnostics” of Islam, the Sufis, on Gurdjieff’s Fourth Way teachings and the “Work” • Uncovers the truth behind Gurdjieff’s relations with Aleister Crowley • Accurately dates Gurdjieff’s real activities, particularly his enigmatic early life In November 1949, architect Frank Lloyd Wright announced the death of “the greatest man in the world,” yet few knew who he was talking about. Enigmatic, misunderstood, declared a charlatan, and recently dubbed “the Rasputin who inspired Mary Poppins,” Gurdjieff’s life has become a legend. But who really was George Ivanovich Gurdjieff? Employing the latest research and discoveries, including previously unpublished reminiscences of the real man, Tobias Churton investigates the truth beneath the self-crafted mythology of Gurdjieff’s life recounted in Meetings with Remarkable Men. He examines his controversial birthdate, his father’s background, and his relationship with his private tutor Dean Borshch, revealing a perilous childhood in a Pontic Greek family, persecuted by Turks, forced to migrate to Georgia and Armenia, only to grow up amid more war, persecution, genocide, and revolt. Placing Gurdjieff in the true context of his times, Churton explores Gurdjieff’s roles in esoteric movements taking root in the Russian Empire and in epic imperial construction projects in the Kars Oblast, Transcaucasia, and central Asia. He reveals Gurdjieff’s sources for his transformative philosophy, his early interest in hypnosis, magic, Theosophy, and spiritualism, and the profound influence of the Yezidis and the Sufis, the “gnostics” of Islam, on Gurdjieff’s Fourth Way teachings and the “Work.” Churton also explores Gurdjieff’s ties to Freemasonry and his relationships with other spiritual teachers and philosophers of the age, such as Madame Blavatsky, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Aleister Crowley, dispelling the myth that Gurdjieff forcibly expelled the “Great Beast” from his Institute. Showing how Gurdjieff deliberately re-shaped elements of his life as parables of his system, Churton explains how he didn’t want people to follow his footsteps but to find their own, to wake up from the hypnosis that drives us blindly through life. Offering a vital understanding of the man who asked “How many of you are really alive?” the author reveals the continuing importance of Gurdjieff’s philosophy for the awakening of man.
This book explores the life and ideas of the enigmatic twentieth century philosopher, mystic, and teacher of esoteric dances George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff, performing a hermeneutic textual analysis of all his writings to illuminate the place of hypnosis in his teaching. Foreword by J. Walter Driscoll.
"This 449-page collection of essays on the life of the famous (or infamous?) George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff could serve as the definitive tome on the eccentric and enigmatic teacher."
The volumes of "The Force of Gurdjieff" Magisteria publishing collection reunite various rare, important and sometimes unknown texts written by people who were influenced by the remarkable force of the Gurdjieff's teaching.
The Ultimate Medicine is not for those who like their spirituality watered down, but for serious students searching for awareness. Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj (1897-1981) lived and taught in a small apartment in the slums of Bombay. A realized master of the Tantric Nath lineage, he supported himself and his family by selling cheap goods in a small booth on the streets outside his tenement for many years. His life exemplified the concept of absolute nonduality of being. In this volume, Maharaj shares the highest truth of nonduality in his own unique way. His teaching style is abrupt, provocative, and immensely profound, cutting to the core and wasting little effort on inessentials. His terse but potent sayings are known for their ability to trigger shifts in consciousness, just by hearing or reading them."The point is that man freed from his fetters is morality personified. Such a man therefore does not need any moralistic injunctions in order to live righteously. Free a man from his bondage and thereafter everything else will take care of itself. On the other hand, man in his unredeemed state cannot possibly live morally, no matter what moral teaching he is given. It is an intrinsic impossibility, for his very foundation is immorality. That is, he lives a lie, a basic contradiction: functioning in all his relationships as the separate entity he believes himself to be, whereas in reality no such separation exists. His every action therefore does violence to other 'selves' and other 'creatures,' which are only manifestations of the unitary consciousness. So Society had to invent some restraints in order to protect itself from its own worst excesses and thereby maintain some kind of status quo. The resulting arbitrary rules, which vary with place and time and therefore are purely relative, it calls 'morality,' and by upholding this man-invented 'idea' as the highest good–oftentimes sanctioned by religious 'revelation' and scriptures–society has provided man with one more excuse to disregard the quest for liberation or relegate it to a fairly low priority in his scheme of things."
This is an unexpected input from the remarkable mystical teacher, George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff, over thirty years after his passing in 1949. A method of transmission was devised, through a trance medium, with multiple means for pursuing and checking the authenticity of the material and demonstrating the validity of the explanations provided. The information given is linked with clues in the published corpus of available teachings and backed by research into ancient sources of what Gurdjieff knew. It comes with the intriguing stories of how both the author found himself involved in the project, and Gurdjieff s explanation of why he had to resort to such a means of communication. Much of the mystery surrounding the man and his mission is unpacked, and many things about his life and work are revealed for the first time. We get a fuller picture at last of what he was trying to achieve during his lifetime. Special groups were set up by Gurdjieff before his passing to protect his writings and disseminate his teachings when he was no longer here. Many groups in many countries still carry on that work. What Gurdjieff addresses in the message of this book is the incompleteness of what he was able to pass on by that means. His students simply werent ready to receive all he had to give to them. What couldnt be directly said or grasped was hidden in his enigmatic writings. At some future time, those messages would need to be revealed. This book is part of that process. Followers of Gurdjieff will find invaluable updated teaching here. Those previously unacquainted with him will nevertheless find a reliable path to self-development.
